June 2018 Common questions tests

Common questions are the questions that appear on both the Foundation and Higher tier papers of an exam series. Ofqual requires that common questions account for at least 20% of the marks available on each paper. We've compliled the common questions from the summer 2018 exam series into three common question tests, which you can set your students.

For Foundation tier students, common questions tests can be helpful in building familiarity with the more challenging questions on a Foundation paper.

For Higher tier students, they can help to ensure students have the necessary foundations to perform well on the Higher paper.

Performance on common questions tests can also be used to help inform decisions on which tier to enter students for, since they represent the most challenging content of the Foundation paper and the least challenging content of the Higher paper.

Fay Sheppard, Director of Maths for United Learning, has written a blog for Better Maths explaining how she uses common questions across a large multi-academy trust. Read the blog here